Milford High School - Spartan Yearbook (Milford, NH)

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Approxrmately a year and a half ago the Umted States recerved a sharp blow to her ego A country that had always supported the underdog but never really placed rn that posmon was nom runnrng second 1n a very rmportant race I am referrrng of course to the contest of mlnds and money that wrll ulttmately lead to the conquestof space a contest that the Unrted States and the Sovret Umon are trylng desperately to w1n The s1tuat1on a year and a half ago stood at th1s The Sovret Unron had a satelhte crrclrng the globe we drd not Important people rn tmportant places asked the all rmportant questrons why? and how? The frnger of blame slowly swung to our educatlonal system I am not gorng to say that our system ts not faultless but rev1s1on to Sovret tech ntques as many people suggest IS not completely deslrable Let s examrne the plc ture a lrttle more closely It 15 defrmtely true that upon complet1on of a secondary educatron a Russran student has had more scrence mathematrcs and forergn language than a graduate here Thrs IS where the advantages end Tlus graduate IS not by our standards an average student If he were he wouldn t have been allowed to complete hrs schoohng Translatrng rhrs lnto the terms of our own lrves would mean srmply that many of us recervlng drplomas torught would not be rn a posruon to under that system Another aspect rs the end product of such an educatron Sovlet educatron 15 hrghly effrcrent It turns out a specral type of student He lS a hrghly effrcrent thmker rn hrs own freld but polrucally speaklng he must remaln mrndless I thlnk the drfferences 1n phrlosophres here are obvlous and that the undesrrabrlrty of such a system 1n thrs country IS equally obvrous The questron strll remarns What 15 to be done? The f1rst thlng to be done lS to start thrnkrng rn terms of our own educauonal sys tem rather than the Russran s We should not of course rgnore them but use them as a source for rdeas Secondly a complete evaluatlon of our educauonal system should be made Thrs could be done by a board of educators or Independently by each school Through thrs the problems could be defrnrtely defrned The problems wrll vary from locale to locale but many of these are natlon Wlde Many of these stand out rn my mrnd and I m sure they w1ll be famllrar to you Frrst of all many new teachers are not well enough prepared as far as subJect matter rs concerned Many teacher s colleges waste valuable trme on so called edu catron courses wrth thc result that the new teacher does not have the subject back ground that he mrght have had 48 . . V . . . . 1 ' I I . . , . . . - - H .r H H - , - . , . , . . - l l ' . 1 1 . . , I I ' I . . . , . , . . . . . . ,. . ' I .. . , , ' I I - I - . . . . . . , . , . 1 . , . . . x , -

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ADDRESS Our enttre way of lrfe 15 berng based more and more on the lowest common denomrnator the so called common man Through hrm we are told what we wrll eat what we wrll wear and sometrmes even what we wrll thrnk You say of course that no one tells you what to thrnk However stop and thrnk a mrnute Isn t all advertrsrng based on malung you th1nk a grven prod uct IS better than IB competltors whether tt rs better or not? Aren t you mfluenced greatly ln your thrnklng about world affalrs by the manner rn whrch the news IS presented to you? And now the new freld of motrvatronal research has come along to provrde more of these htdden persuaders To me thrs seems a potentrally dangerous s1tuat1on for who knows what mrght happen rf these tools were to fall rnto the wrong hands Another thmg that bothers me rs the present trend toward conformrty How often have you heard the phrase what wrll people thrnk'P Who cares what people thrnk as long as you do what you thlnk 1S r1ght If the founders of our country had thought of thrs we mrght st1l1 be duced by non conformrsts so why should we conform? Certarnly rt s the socrally accepted thrng but rf socrety doesn t want you as an mdrvrdual there must be somethrng wrong wrth so crety Supposedly our Western culture rs based on the 1nd1v1dual but somehow we ve forgotten that rn our present day world Somewhere along the lrne we as a country have lost srght of the goals that our forefathers had tn mtnd when they set up thrs natron Our moral and sp1r1tual values have farled to keep pace wrth our technologrcal advances Part of the blame can be lard on the wars we have en dured wrth therr pressures and tensrons Part rs due to the very nature of our modern world so terrrble that many of us can not really accept rt and so lrve ln a klnd of world of make belreve But somehow we have developed a double standard what we pracuce and what we preach We re becomrng a race of hypocrttes I cannot grve a qurck and easy solutron for these problems for there rs none The result of many years of behavror tn one pattern cannot be erased or remedred rn a mmute It 15 up to each one of us to do hrs httle part to make our world a better place tn whtch to lrve We may get ll blown out from underneath us but tt wrll be worth the effort whlle we re st1ll here PAUL H BLAKEBURN 47 . . . . . . . . . t D I . . . . . , , . , . . . having tea at four o'clock every afternoon. Virtually all man's greatest work has been pro- - . . . , . , . . . . , . . . . . - . y I . I ' I , . . . . . . , .

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ADDRESS Secondly the mushroomrng enrollment in all our schools IS producing facilities problems unheard of in previous years This is one of those problems that must be settled on a strictly local basis Third is the inability of teachers particularly in mathematics and science to be come informed on the latest developments in their fields This is not the fault of the teachers but IS due primarily to the lack of facilities for obtaining this advanced knowledge Finally the problem of handling the exceptional child presents itself Facilities are available for the retarded student but what of the exceptional? In many cases unless he is extremely self motivated he will be forced to dog along with his less endowed classmates This results in boredom and loss of interest The answers to these problems are many Summer courses for teachers will an swer the needs of the teacher interested in the latest developments in his subject Summer school for students is the answer for the advanced student New Hamp building projects for the enrollment problem seem to be the only answ er in this case There is one last barrier to our realization of our dreams as far as education concerned This is money All ofthese things will be expensive and the burden most cases will fall on the back of the taxpayer Where is this money to come from It has been proven in the past that the American people can finance anything that they really feel they need It then becomes important to convince the public rn general of the importance of this Because of the Sputruks I am sure that everyone is conscious of education but not everyone is education conscious A campaign of sorts is necessary to sell this idea to the public Education interest must not be confined to people with children in school but must be spread to everyone as a very important thing lS at stake the very life of our nation In conclusion the answer to our problem does not he rn the Russian educational system as many people suppose It lies in our own system and the natural develop ment of it into a more advanced form Ray mond P Regan -19 l I 1 - , . . 1 Y I f r shire is fortunate to have such a pioneering summer school already in operation. Vast . . . . . is . ' ' . ' 'i I in . V